Drew Karpyshyn, the lead writer on Mass Effect, has just announced that he’s leaving BioWare once again. Karpyshyn originally worked on the Mass Effect trilogy at BioWare before leaving in 2012, rejoining in 2015 to help with writing for EA MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic. He then moved onto the Anthem team, but three years later he's left once again, roughly a year before Anthem is due to launch.

“I know a lot of you are wondering why I’m doing this. For many people, working at BioWare would be their dream job and they can’t imagine anyone stepping away from it. But it was time for me to move on,” Karpyshyn said.

“Everyone who works at BioWare pours their heart and soul into the games they are making. It’s creatively demanding and – at times – exhausting. In the past, I’ve managed to juggle outside projects with my work at BioWare, but it always took a toll. And there were always outside projects I had to pass on because they would represent a conflict of interest with BioWare or EA properties.”

Following Karpyshyn’s departure, BioWare general manager Casey Hudson has reassured fans that there’s no need to panic - his exit won’t impact Anthem’s development in any fashion. In a tweet to fans, Hudson made it clear that Anthem is a narrative-driven game, and story-focused games are what BioWare will continue to be known for.

“Story will always be an important part of every BioWare game,” wrote Hudson. “Drew has wrapped up his work on the project, but Anthem’s Lead Writers and their teams continue to do amazing work developing the world, story, and characters.”

There’s always been the worry that BioWare would eschew a traditional story in favour of some light co-op hijinks, so it’s reassuring to hear that BioWare is at least attempting to do it justice.

Anthem is currently poised to launch in early 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We’ve seen precious little of the game since its reveal at E3 last year, but it appears as if it’s all hands on deck at BioWare to get Anthem out and allow the studio to recover from the high-profile failure of Mass Effect Andromeda.

Mass Effect Andromeda failed becase stupid kids cared more about some face animation that the game itself. I liked ME:A a alot, but it could have been better. Maybe small-medium areas at a higher quality instead a decent open world…

I dont know man… I also don't care about the animation bugs, but the whole plot felt empty,not polished, interaction with the world felt meh… I think they did enough with the ME: trilogy and should just move to the next thing - better leave it alone in history shinning, then screwing it up further

I honestly got nothing even remotely good to say about dev-killer EA so i'll just leave with satisfyingly disappointed look on my face "knowing" this shiny gaMe gonna flop and be filled with you know whaT…

after all almost every time bioware made a game without drew the narrative lost a certain level of finesseas evidence by mass effect 3 controversial ending and mass effect andromeda.don't give me wrong ? do want anthem o succeed but the more ea push their agenda up front the more i lose hope

Anthem had better be pretty amazing to compensate for practically killing ME Andromeda to the point where it might not even have a sequel, but simultaneously my expectations for it keep decreasing every time I hear something about it or EA.